Rhubarb Apple Crumble

Rhubarb makes me laugh. Not only is it a weird thing in general, but every time I say it - "rhubarb" - it comes out so country. Not just country, but deep south Paula Deen country! I love it. It's a vegetable used in dessert, it's bright pink, it's SOUR, and it has a funny name. What's not to love?

We went to Whole Foods the other day and S.D. had his heart set on Rhubarb Crumble. After a long search for rhubarb, we found out it wasn't in season. I've never seen him broken hearted over food, but he was. Lucky for him I happened to stumble upon some frozen rhubarb a few days later in the grocery store. Yay!

So here it is... Rhubarb Crumble! Actually, I'm not sure if it's a crumble or a crisp. I looked up online the deference between a crumble and a crisp. They seem quite similar, except a crumble is a British dessert and may not be as sweet. And since this didn't seem extremely sweet (unless of course you count all the ice cream we piled on top) I am going to call it a crumble.


The first time I made this I used only rhubarb. This time I decided to add some apples to it. One Granny Smith and one Gala. I'm not sure which I liked better. They were both delicious of course, but the plain rhubarb was slightly more sour.

The original recipe had a lot less fruit and more butter in the topping. I definitely like more fruit, and the reviews said all the butter made the topping too hard. So here is the adapted recipe:

Rhubarb Apple Crumble

16 oz. frozen rhubarb, defrosted

2 apples, peeled and chopped into 1 inch cubes

1/2 c. white sugar

1 1/2 T. flour

1/2 c. light brown sugar

1/2 c. quick cooking oats

3/4 c. flour

5 T. vegan butter

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Stir together first four ingredients and place in small casserole dish (mine was about 11"x7"x2.5"). Stir together brown sugar, oats, and remaining flour. Cut in butter to resemble coarse crumbs and sprinkle over top of rhubarb mixture. Bake in preheated oven 40 minutes or until browned on top and bubbly.